Submit Your ZomBee Watch Sample

Submit your Zombee Watch observation at SciStarter.com/data/zombee

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ZomBee Watch is sponsored by the San Francisco State University Department of Biology, the San Francisco State University Center for Computing for Life Sciences and the Natural History Museum of LA County.

three sample jars filled with infected honey bees
Four samples containing affected honey bees
two zombie fly maggots emerging from their host honey bee
Two zombie fly maggots leaving their host
dead honey bee with four zombie fly pupae
Zombie fly pupae from an infected honey bee
four zombie fly adults next to the host honey bee
Four adult zombie flies and their former host

ZomBee Watch is a citizen science project that needs your help to learn if and where honey bees are being taken over by the zombie fly. This project is kind of gross but honey bees are so important that we thought it was worth it!

To do this project, you'll need to collect and observe a bee, following instructions found at scistarter.com/zombee.

This project might take one day (if you don't find any bees) or up to 30 days if you do find a bee. That's typically how long it will take for a pesky zombie fly to spring to life from it's poor host the honey bee. In any case, review and print this form, then come back to SciStarter.com/data/zombee when you are ready to enter all of your data and upload pictures.


print form

Your information

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Describe your ZomBee Watch site
This name will help you later if you submit more than one sample to ZomBee Watch.
How did you collect the bee(s)?

Your sample's location

Based on the available information, this is your samples's point on the map. If this is not correct, you can drag the marker to the correct spot.

Did you collect any bees?

If you did not collect any bees, enter today's date, enter "0" for the "Number of bees collected," then scroll down and click "Submit data." You're done. Thank you!

If not, enter today's date and enter "0" for the "Number of bees collected.

Did you see any maggots or pupae?

Look for zombie fly maggots or pupae after 5-14 days. If the bees were infected, maggots should have escaped and some or all of them have changed into pupae. If you have found no maggots or pupae, enter "0."

Did you see any zombie flies?

Look for adult zombie flies after 14-30 days. If there were none, enter "0."